Our Church Family

We are so glad that you have found our church website! We’d like you to know that our church family has three values that are really important to us:

Studying and Living Out the Bible. We love studying God’s written Word! We study it in our personal devotions at home, in our small groups, in our Youth Group, and in our Sunday School classes. We even ask that our pastor preach sermons that are based in the Bible and show how we can live out the teachings of scripture in our daily lives – and that’s his favorite way to preach! We generally interpret the Bible in what some call a “conservative” way, trusting that what God taught in the scriptures he actually meant. We know that we don’t yet follow all of the teachings of the Bible perfectly. But we’re trying, with God’s help! And we invite you to join us on this journey.

Loving One Another. We’ve had guests to our worship services tell us that we’re a very friendly church, and we’re happy to hear that! A church our size is able to be like a family that cares for one another “one on one.” Again, we know that we don’t do that perfectly yet. But we’re trying to show love and care for people of all ages, all races, all economic levels and all approaches to life. During worship, we take the time to voice our specific praises and our specific concerns and ask our pastor to lift them all up in prayer. If someone hasn’t been around here for a while we try to reach out to them to find out why and to see if we can help. We remember birthdays and anniversaries. We pray for one another, often out in a hallway or in the parking lot. If you are looking for a church that’s more than just a place to worship but is more like a family, then we invite you to join us.

Reaching Out to Others. We believe that scripture teaches us to take the love we’ve experienced here out into our community and beyond. We do that, first, by opening the doors of our church to community groups that need a place to meet. Second, we do that by showing the love of Jesus to folks in our community through such things as paying for peoples’ laundry at our local laundry mats, giving families a totally free day of fun, food, prayer and games in the Zelienople Park (The Gathering), passing out free water, food and prayers at Zelie’s Horse Trading Days and giving lower-income people a Christmas Gift Store in our church where they can purchase brand new toys, clothes and other gifts at 90 percent off the sticker price. Finally, we do that by sending folks overseas on trips to help people in Russia, Tanzania, Mexico, and other countries. If you’d like to be a part of showing God’s love to others in our community, and around the world, then we invite you to join us.

Our Leaders

Pastor Dan Owen
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Pastor Dan loves Jesus, his wife Jan, his children, the Church, speaking with strangers and friends, golf, woodworking, and Duke basketball. He’s a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College (’80) and Duke Divinity School (’83). Since 1983, he has served eight churches in Potter County, Erie County, Washington County, and Butler County. He believes God has called him to investigate and preach the Bible, to help churches be all that God is calling them to be and sometimes to share God’s wisdom in sticky situations. He would very much like to chat with anyone who would like to get to know him. Please call the church office at (724) 452-7670 to schedule a time to get together and he will do his best to call you back the same day. (Unless he’s out on the golf course!).

Brooke Patterson
Kids and Student Ministries Director
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Brooke joined the staff of HZGMC in March 2007. She serves as Director of Kids and Student Ministries. She has traveled to Russia 12 times in the past 12 years with Orphan’s Tree, one of our Faith Promise Partners. She has also served on the Orphan’s Tree Board of Directors. In her spare time, Brooke loves hanging out with her nephew Mauro, going to concerts, camping with friends and engaging in conversations with all ages about how Jesus calls us all to, “Live your dream!”